2016 Rioja Vina Del Olivo
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Tasting notes
Named for the 700-year-old olive tree in the middle of the micro-plot. 50- to 55-year-old vines. Field blend with small proportions of Garnacha and Graciano among the Tempranillo vines. Alluvial and limestone soils. TA 5.7, pH 3.43, free SO2 24 mg/l, total SO2 87 mg/l . Mid-deep ruby-purple. Vanilla, baking spices, some grilled-meat and baked-earth complexity, with ripe, mixed-berry fruit on the nose. Juicy and spicy, with an appealing touch of incense from the oak, then a gentle salty tang through the finish. Fabulous length. (TJ)
Critic scores
Average Score
Tim Jackson MW, jancisrobinson.com
James Suckling
More reviews and scores
The 2016 Viña del Olivo has to be one of the finest recent vintages of this wine. It's powerful and elegant and has great balance and a lively palate, with focused flavors, great purity and integrated oak. It's very young and seems to have all the ingredients for a long development in bottle. It's tasty, long, very pure and is salty rather than sweet. 13,881 bottles produced.
(malo in new French oak barrels and aging for 17 months in new French, American and Hungarian oak) Youthful purple. Powerful, deeply perfumed aromas of ripe dark berries, cherry liqueur, potpourri and incense, along with oak spice, vanilla and woodsmoke nuances. Sweet and palate-coating, offering densely packed but vibrant black raspberry, cherry-vanilla and floral pastille flavors energized by a core of juicy acidity and a suggestion of exotic spices. Finishes sweet and impressively long, showing outstanding clarity and youthful tannins that add solid grip to the sappy, lingering fruit. (JR)
This is sleek and racy with a polish and beauty that is incredible. Full body, ultra-fine tannins that touch you at the beginning and take you down to a gorgeous depth of fruit. Super. A great single vineyard wine.